Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Archives

Faith Index

The
Crisis of Faith
In a word, faith is part of our very nature as rational human beings. However,
it is one thing to believe in other people and something else to believe
in God. To believe in what people tell us is called human faith. To believe
in what God has revealed is called Divine faith. To be still more clear,
Divine faith properly so called is the assent of our intellect to what God
has revealed, not because we comprehend what God tells us is true, but only
because we accept a truth on His authority who can neither deceive, or be
deceived.

Faith
in the Life of a Priest
What is Faith? Why is Faith important in the life of a Christian? How is Faith imperative in the life of a Catholic priest? We can give summary attention to the first two questions and concentrate on the third; yet I do not think that, given the state of things in the Church today, we should glide over either the meaning of faith or its importance in the life of every Catholic Christian.

Our
Supernatural Knowledge of God
No one, and the word is no one, will reach heaven from his or her own natural rational knowledge of God. Only the supernatural knowledge otherwise known as divine faith is adequate as the foundation for salvation.

Our
Love of God
The purpose of knowing God is to love Him. And the better we know Him the more we can love Him this fundamental mandate of Sacred Scripture, of our duty, mind you, no option here, duty, of our duty to Love God, we must immediately point out the world of difference between the two Testaments on the same commandments.

The Mystery Hidden for Ages in God
Paul M. Quay, S.J., was one of the most brilliant students that I taught in a Jesuit theologate. He already had a doctorate in physics before he began his study of theology. Over the years, until his premature death, he did not publish extensively. But certainly, The Mystery Hidden for Ages in God is a synthesis of his superb understanding of the Catholic faith and one of the great books of the second half of the twentieth century. The more than four hundred pages of this volume are an answer to the question which the author raises in his introduction. It is worth quoting in full.

Crisis of Faith and the Eucharist
In the United States alone, over 150 parishes have been closed in just three dioceses within the last few years. Most of the once flourishing, Catholic elementary and secondary schools have been closed. Catholic seminarians in our country have dropped by 90% in the last thirty years. Attendance at Sunday Mass, in not a few dioceses has dropped from 50-80% since the close of Vatican II. Behind this phenomenon is the loss of faith among so many once believing Roman Catholics.

The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ
There are two mysteries of the faith on which we concentrate in this lesson namely, the true humanity of Jesus Christ, and the privileges of Mary, His Mother, who brought Him into the world. The first mystery, the true humanity of Jesus, part of world history, at a definite time, in a definite place. The events of His life are real facts and the words that He said are real speech. The second mystery, His Mother Mary, is also part of the history of the world. Being no less than her Son, the mystery of Mary not only builds on provable historical data and surpasses these data in five marvelous ways.

A Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan
The preservation of our Catholic faith depends on the written word. This is not an accident of history but a fact of divine providence. Within one generation of Christs death and resurrection, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke were written and in circulation. By the end of the first century, the 27 books of the New Testament were finished and Gods revelation to the human race was completed.

Defending the Catholic Faith
We are not accustomed to defending the faith in an age of ecumenism and of the promotion of Christian unity. When everybody seems to be talking about unity, why should anyone bring up the embarrassing subject of divisions in Christianity? But true ecumenism does not exclude the defense of truth, nor does it forbid - in the norm of charity - standing up for the only sound basis for true unity, which is sound Catholic orthodoxy.

Behold We Go Up to Jerusalem
Easter is the most important feast in Christianity. In fact, it is the pivot of the ecclesiastical year, around which everything in the Churchs calendar revolves.

Lesson One - The Apostles Creed
In your lesson, the main thing to keep in mind is that the foundation of Christianity is the faith, that this faith can be expressed in plain, ordinary language, and that the Apostles Creed is the most ancient and widely used summary of what Christians are to believe.

The Apostles Creed
The Apostles Creed was originally a profession of faith required of converts to Christianity before they were baptized. As a formula of belief, it goes back in substance, if not in words, to the twelve Apostles.

Catholic Reading Provides Actual Evidence for Faith
Anyone familiar with the Catholic Church in the closing years of the twentieth century knows that there is a crisis of identity in millions of once totally dedicated minds. The term "Catholic" has been used by so many people with so many different meanings that even among the elect there is confusion. Yet, by her own claims, the Roman Catholic Church has remained substantially the same, since the first Pentecost Sunday to the present day. This is easier said than proved. So that a more profound reason for assembling a Reading Plan was to provide factual evidence that Catholic continuity is reality and not rhetoric.

Our Belief in God
"What does it mean to believe in God?" That after all is the hub of the problem and the only issue that deserves prayerful analysis. It is in this context that the awful question posed by Saint John should haunt us. How is it, he asks, that you who are so ready to believe in men are so slow to believe in God? How is it that credulous man who is so ready to believe in the most bizarre television statements or the most atrocious editorials in newspapers how is it that this same credulous man can suddenly become so skeptical when God speaks and when the message He communicates is His own Divine Wisdom?

Understand Your Catholic Faith or Lose It
What then do we mean when we say that persons lose their faith? We mean that they have abandoned their faith. You do not lose anything deliberately. It is the Churchs infallible teaching that once a person was baptized in the Catholic Church and had even basic instruction in the true faith, he does not lose the Catholic faith. We have to say he abandons it.